HPV Country Profile

19

cases in 2018

12

deaths in 2018

The HPV vaccine is currently not included in Qatar's national immunization program.

Description

HPV

General Information

Human Papillomavirus

Burden of HPV infection

In Qatar, about 2.3% of women in the general population are estimated to have HPV type 16 or 18 at a given time, which causes approximately 72.4% of invasive cervical cancers in the country.1 A 2017 study found that the prevalence of HPV infection amongst Qatari and non-Qatari Arab women were 9.8% and 6.1%, respectively and 7.6% and 16.7% in women with normal and abnormal cytology, respectively. HPV 81 was the most commonly found genotype in women with normal cytology (34.5%), whereas HPV 81, 16 and 59 in women with abnormal cytology (25.0% each).4

Burden of cervical cancer

Cervical cancer, caused by HPV, is the eleventh leading cause of cancer deaths in women in Qatar, causing at least 12 deaths annually among the population of 447,298 women aged 15 years and older who are at risk for the disease.1,2 Between 2012 and 2018, the number of deaths every year due to cervical cancer tripled (4 in 2012 to 12 in 2018), and if decisive action is not taken at the national level, annual deaths due to the disease will triple again by 2040, reaching 38 deaths per year.3 In Qatar, at least 19 women are newly diagnosed with cervical cancer each year.

4 per 100,000 women in Qatar contract cervical cancer annually and 3.2 per 100,000 Qatari women die due to the disease each year. Among countries in the MENA region (as defined by UNAIDS), Qatar’s death and incidence rates due to cervical cancer are about average. For example, Somalia and Morocco have the highest incidence and mortality rates, with 24.0 and 17.2 women per 100,000 being newly diagnosed with cervical cancer annually and at least 21.9 and 12.6 women per 100,000 dying due to cervical cancer per year, respectively. Whereas Iran, Iraq and Yemen have the lowest (around 2 per 100,000 women are diagnosed per year and about 1 per 100,000 die because of cervical cancer annually).2

Human papillomavirus (HPV) screening and vaccination must be taken up on a war footing to prevent 15 million cervical cancer deaths among women by 2050, a Lancet research said. Causing the second-highest number of deaths among women, cervical cancer, in a

DOHA: It is understood that cervical cancer is the 11th most common cancer in the GCC (Executive Board of the Health Ministers’ Council for GCC). The ICO Information Centre on HPV and Cancer have also recognised this as the fifth most common cancer among

Qatar will introduce a human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine for cervical cancer and genital warts this year, disclosed a senior official of the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) on Wednesday. “We will launch the HPV vaccine during the International Vaccinat

Doha: Qatar Cancer Society (QCS) has launched a month-long campaign — ‘Darbek Khadar’, that aims at raising awareness about cervical cancer and emphasizing the need for early screening and encouraging women to do a Pap smear test. As part of the campaign